1. Field of the Invention
The invention has as its object a device which greatly facilitates the pick-up and assembly, in accordance with a well-defined code, of elements of identification which are currently in use for locating the wire strands at two distant ends of an electric cable, or the terminals of electrical appliances.
2. Brief Description of the Background of the Invention Including Prior Art
There are in existence elements of identification of various types; the invention is in no way limited to a specific type of elements of identification; it is possible to readily adapt it to different types of elements. To be more explicit, we shall in the following refer to elements of identification which, either totally or in part, consist of a link or a sleeve or at least of a ring-shaped configuration, into which can be introduced a rod which enables the pick-up of one specific element from the entire assembly of elements.
An example of elements of identification of this type with which the device of the invention can be used is disclosed in French Patent FR-A 2,239,182. In this document, tubular elements of identification are described which bear a symbol, either a number or a letter, and which are arranged in order in the switch cabinet in rows of several elements, whereby each row bears identical symbols. A short measuring tape is designed to be successively threaded into several ring-shaped elements which are picked up, one by one, in the desired order, to compose a message code of identification, for example, a number. The elements which compose this message are then transferred, as a whole, on a carrier for the message code of identification already fixed or destined to be fixed on a wire strand of a cable or on an electric terminal. Hence, each message to identification is composed individually, element by element.
Known means of identification include the following:
a carrier with distinct rows for the elements of identification,
the elements of identification, at least partially tubular, are arranged in order on these rows and are spaced by a defined first step P1 and bear in each row an identical symbol,
the carriers are constructed to each receive a series of elements of identification, thus composing a message code of identification,
a means for picking-up these elements of identification which has a section which can be threaded into a tubular part of the elements of identification.
The device of the invention comprises a comb with parallel teeth which are spaced by a second step P2, the value of which is equal to or several times the value of a first step P1 of the elements of identification of a combined comb. Each of these teeth is designed to have mounted, in a removable manner, a carrier of a series of elements which compose a message code of identification. A means of pick-up includes at least two parallel arms which are spaced at a step P2 which is identical to the step P2 of the teeth of the comb. Each of these arms has a very straight part which can be threaded into the tubular section of the elements of identification. This straight part is limited, opposite to its free end, by a stop catch.
According to an improvement and further development of the invention, the comb comprises or consists of two halves which can be easily assembled or separated and of a joint face, where the thickness of said halves permits the interface to be fitted between the two halves. The successively arranged teeth of the comb belong, alternately, either to the one or the other half. Preferably, the teeth of at least one of these halves are off-set so that all teeth are on the same face once the two halves are assembled.
In order to mark electrical cables, either individually or in bundles, it is known to form markers which are furnished as a combination of an alphanumerical pointer which is preassembled on a marker-support carrier.
These alphanumerical pointers are generally formed from flexible tubular sections which carry a number or a letter and which are introduced into a housing for the marker-support carrier. For this purpose, the marker-support carrier, according to the present invention, is formed of a tubular cover section carrying in the longitudinal direction of one of its generators of the said housing which is also formed by a tube arranged in the wall of the cover. The conductor to be marked can be thus introduced into the tubular cover which closes it more or less elastically.
In certain cases, the cables to be marked have a diameter which is too large in order to be introduced into the tubular marker carrier. In other cases, one has to mark an assembly of conductors which are combined into a bundle.
The invention furnishes a device for support and for fixing of these marker carriers in order to allow them to be put in position on any type of conductor regardless of its diameter.
For this purpose, the invention discloses a support and fixation device for a marker carrier formed as a tubular cover, where several pointers are placed and assembled in a housing of said cover, where the support and fixation device is formed by a band section of a flexible material, where the band section is furnished at each one of its ends with an opening, where at least one of the ends is covered by a flexible longitudinal crossing-over.
The second opening can equally have a flexible crossing-over.
Each crossing-over is advantageously divisible at the level of one or of its two feet, and forms, in case of a cut of its foot on the side of the middle part of the section, a retainer hook for the tubular marker carrier.
The said band section is preferably formed by a detachable part of one band, where at least one of the ends is extended by small tapered tongue for the introduction of the marker carriers.
The present invention also relates to a device for maintaining and presenting platelets of pointer supports in a position facilitating their getting apart by means of a gripper which is generally known and which is formed by a stem which one introduces into the pointer.
Such pointer tubes are known and serve in particular for the marking of electrical conductors and they are associated for forming a number or an alphanumeric combination which is placed in an marking carrier. On the one hand, this assures the cohesion and the permanent support of the combination thus formed and, on the other hand, comprises as means for fixing the marking to the wire or to the cable to be identified.
The pointers are in most of the cases glued onto the support leaves or onto the platelets, along a line, and each support is furnished with a plurality of the same pointers. The composition of the marker comprises therefore to set apart each of the pointers which form it on the different supports. In order to facilitate this setting apart, the supports are placed in the compartments of storage frame in such a way that all the pointers are visible and individually accesible. In the structures known, one of the inconveniences is associated with the fact that the gripper exerts a rubbing force onto the pointer which is rapidly stronger than the adherence force which retains the pointer on its support and which provokes the detachment of the pointer before it is well joined by the stem of the gripper. It can thus spontaneously detach itself and fall on the bottom of the storage frame or onto the floor. It is a difficult and costly operation to recover the pointer and it would represent a loss not to recover.
In order to obviate this inconvenience, the invention discloses a storage frame where the pointers are safely retained until the gripper is completely introduced, which avoids a loss of time or a loss of pointers.
It is an object of the invention to provide for a storage frame for maintaining and for presenting of a plurality of the support platelets for tubular pointers, glued in line on each of the platelets. The storage frame comprises a plurality of inclined compartments into each one of which compartments a platelet is disposed. Each compartment of the storage frame is delimited by a pair of partitions, which are spaced apart from each other by a distance smaller than the thickness (diameter) of the tubular pointer, whereas the space between each pair of partitions has a depth which is at least equal to the axial length of each one of the pointers.
According to a first embodiment, each pair of partitions is formed by the branches of a U profile, where its ends are interdependent of the side walls of the storage frame. The height of the side walls defines the depth of the space between the compartments.
According to a second embodiment, each pair of partitions comprises a main support partition for the rear face of each platelet, and a front partition comprising a lower part spaced from the main partition by a distance greater than the thickness of the platelet furnished with its pointers, and one upper part turned toward the main partition in order to take up a rest support on the front face of each platelet above the pointer row.
The lower part of the front partition can advantageously be formed by a rear partition of the adjacent pair.
Moreover, the upper part of the partition can be of a height which is at least equal to the axial length of the pointers and which exhibits, in its near zone of its connection with the lower part, an inclined part over the width of the lower part of the compartment which forms the cam surface for the end of a gripper, known in principle.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.